Sandy Bridge E is right around the corner and the amount of Socket-2011 related emails we're getting is going up. The latest is from MSI - we got an email with pics of the company's X79 lineup including the ultra high-end Big Bang XPower II and the micro-ATX X79MA-GD45. Check out the gallery below for shots of all the boards.

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  • MySchizoBuddy - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link

    How many GPUs can it support?
    are these still PCIe 2 or v3
  • piroroadkill - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link

    Sandy Bridge E has a PCIe 3.0 controller, I'm pretty sure.
  • CharonPDX - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link

    If you zoom in on the picture, you can see "PCI-E 3.0" silk screened on at least the all-black-slot board and the first two blue-slot boards.
  • Gunbuster - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link

    Ugly and out of date looking. MSI needs to hire a new designer for the heatsink and stuff.

    They even look clunky compared to the MSI Z68 boards...
  • DanNeely - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link

    Some of the boards have 2 different style retention clips on the PCIe 16x slots.

    After seeing AMD Llano boards with quad back panel USB3, only 2 ports on these boards seems rather stingy.

    Is dual Lan going out of fashion?
  • softdrinkviking - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link

    bullet-shaped heatsink looks like a junior-high aged wet-dream.
  • sarth - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 - link

    Thought they were crayons ;)
  • Operandi - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 - link

    I thought they were stupid, and they are.
  • Tormeh - Thursday, November 10, 2011 - link

    Seconded.
  • GokieKS - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link

    These component makers sure love their gun motifs.

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